Tag Archives: rnoh

Multimedia Film On Amazing People

This is the most important project I did during 2012; a look at an amazing hospital in Stanmore, Middlesex called the Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital (RNOH). The original film was first commissioned by the hospital’s charity to help raise funds. After filming I spent several days at the RNOH with the aim of just shooting images. Leica M9s to hand, I was fortunate to see some wonderful moments and combined with a recent visit to the children’s ward by the hospital’s Patron, HRH Princess Eugenie in December, I decided to make a completely new edit of the film, incorporating the photographs.

The 20 images have been selected as a finalist in the Photo Essay category of the awards and the winners will be announced tonight at the awards dinner this evening. The photo essay is one of six selected essays submitted by press photographers from around the country, covering national and international stories. Fingers crossed!

The Power Of Photographs

Following the RNOH film, I decided I wanted to do a different edit to our TAPTV film. My thoughts were to combine some photographs within the edit. At first I looked through the beautifully edited by Neil Patience film and realised that there were some nice still images within the footage. With Quicktime 7, I went back to the original Canon 5D MkII footage and exported some still images, particularly from the interview sections.

These images were imported into Aperture 3 where I processed them. For the B/W conversions I exported them into Nik Software’s Silver Efex Pro 2. Here I created four custom looks and these were applied to the images as appropriate. Using FCP X I then did an re-edit of the film, incorporating the images captures. I also used Red Giant’s Magic Bullet Looks 2 to grade the film slightly differently to our original.

Earlier this year, we decided that to coincide with the launch, it would be a great idea to shoot a proper photo reportage on the RNOH, so over a three and a half day period, using a Leica M9 and M9-P, I wandered the operating theatres, halls and wards (with the invaluable help from the fundraising and communications teams), making a set of pictures. I mainly shot the entire project using the Leica 50mm Noctilux APSH, the new 35mm Summilux ASPH and the 28mm Summicron.

These were first edited in Aperture for my agency Eyevine and once done, I set about incorporating them into my video edit. As before, Nik Software’s Silver Efex Pro 2 was used for the B/W conversions and I set about importing them into FCP X and making the new edit of the video.

There is something much more powerful with B/W imagery and for me, this version is even more powerful. It’s a full multimedia marriage of video, audio and photography. I’d love to know which version of the film you find stronger and why.

My biggest ask though is that if you were touched by this amazing place, please help in their redevelopment and donate to the RNOH fund. Thank you.

Lastly, here is a slideshow of my favourite photographs from the project:

The RNOH Appeal Film

I was very honoured when Neil Patience (an extremely talented video editor) invited me to take part in a project he was going to be involved in. He mentioned it was the RNOH, a hospital which I had already done several assignments in (photographing Princess Diana and on a separate occasion my first ever award winning picture; a wheel chair basketball game, to mention a couple).

In April 2011 we had a meeting with Rosie Stolarski (Head of Fundraising, RNOH Charity) and Professor Tim Briggs (Consultant Orthopaedic Surgeon), the subject of which was to make a fundraising appeal film. The original brief was for a very short, straightforward appeal type film, but after the first few days of shooting, Neil and I had decided to go for more of a documentary feel. Neil put together a rough cut of what we had already and we were overjoyed when the RNOH went for it and changed the brief.

Photographer and film maker Edmond Terakopian filming at the Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital in Stanmore. Filming in an operating theatre with two Canon 5D MkII camera, one on a Gitzo (GT3531LSV + G1380 head) and the other on a Zacuto Striker with the Zacuto Z-Finder Pro attached). Both cameras have Rode microphones attached for ambient sound recording. The VideoMic (closer) and VideoMic Pro. A Think Tank Photo Multimedia Wired Up 10 belt pack is also being used. May 16, 2011. Photo: Neil Patience

We spent a long time planning various aspects of the film, including the patient interviews. With the hospital team, we chose a cross section of their previous patients who had had the full gamut of operations, thus transforming their lives. We covered a wide age range and conditions to paint a full picture.

Photographer and film maker Edmond Terakopian filming at the Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital in Stanmore. Filming in an operating theatre with a Canon 5D MkII camera on a Zacuto Striker with the Zacuto Z-Finder Pro attached and the Rode VideoMic Pro. A Think Tank Photo Multimedia Wired Up 10 belt pack is also being used. May 16, 2011. Photo: Neil Patience

The flip side to these life changing stories though was the conditions in which this amazing staff have to work. Huts that serve as wards dating back to the 1940s, crumbling, leaking building, sloping corridors that require special locomotives to pull beds along. A truly extreme juxtaposition of amazing medical work in such atrocious conditions.

Photographer and film maker Edmond Terakopian filming at the Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital in Stanmore. Filming in a prosthetic limb manufacturing section run by Blachleys. A Canon 5D MkII camera, on the Gitzo (GT3531LSV + G1380 head) tripod, with a Rode VideoMic Pro microphone. Extra equipment needed for the shoot is carried in a Think Tank Photo Multimedia Wired Up 10. May 16, 2011. Photo: Neil Patience

Having an amazing client though is the start of great work and I really must thank the RNOH in helping us be creative, change the brief to make it a more powerful film and for all the logistical help. All the coordination by Rosie Stolarski for the entire project and the patience of her team members Jenny Blyth and Sam Bowie when they accompanied us on site was paramount. A huge word of thanks goes to head of communications Anna Fox who spent the most time with us on site, making sure everything was planned and helping us get the shots we needed. We’d like to thank all the amazing surgeons who invited us into their operating theatres and all the physiotherapists, nurses, prosthetics team and other medical staff for their help. A big thanks also go to the ushers and the security team for all their help.

The biggest words of thanks go to the former patients who let us into their lives and inspired us with their strength and courage. Our thanks go to HRH Princess Eugenie of York, Molly Poole, Carol West, Phil Packer, Phil Coburn, Kat Reid and the amazing Caitlin Kydd.

Techniques & Technical

Behind the scenes photographs of the filming of the appeal DVD. Showing film maker Edmond Terakopian & Editor and Producer Neil Patience. An iPad is used for interview questions. RNOH, Stanmore. Photo: Nicola Taylor

I shot the entire video using two Canon 5D MkII cameras, using a range of Canon lenses; 15mm f2.8, 16-35mm f2.8L II, 24-105mm f4L, 35mm f1.4L, 50mm f1.2L and a 135mm f2L. My main tripod was a fluid head Gitzo (GT3531LSV + G1380 head). For the locked off shots with the tighter lens (135mm f2L) I used a carbon fibre photographic Manfrotto tripod. For the handheld shots, I used a Zacuto Striker and Z-Finder Pro eyepiece. Having to cover long distances across the hospital grounds and wards with the kit meant needing to plan not only the right and relevant kit, but the right bags too. We used a Think Tank Photo Airport Internal v2 and also a Multimedia Wired Up 10. On the last interview with Consultant Orthopaedic Surgeon Professor Briggs, I also used a Marshall 5” monitor (V-LCD50-HDMI).

Operating Theatre 4 with Prof Tim Briggs. A Marshall 5″ monitor (V-LCD50-HDMI) is used to check focus, lighting, composition and exposure). The light on the left is a Kino Flo Diva Light supplied by New Day Pictures. September 21, 2011. Photo: Edmond Terakopian

To keep the same feel and uniformity with the ex-patient interview scenes, we decided to shoot them against a black background. One of the problems though was that although some interviews would be done at the hospital, these were at different days and in different rooms. The other interviews would be on location at ex-patients’ homes. We needed a proper light absorbing black, but also a background which was sturdy and stable. On top of these requirements, it also needed to be highly collapsible and portable. After having a chat with our friends at Lastolite, we found just the trick. The Lastolite Plain Black Velvet Collapsible Background (which has a collapsible frame) and the Lastolite background support (1109).

Royal visit to the Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital (RNOH), Stanmore, Middx. HRH Prince Andrew being filmed by Edmond Terakopian. For this shot two Canon 5D MkII cameras were used. One on a Gitzo (GT3531LSV + G1380 head) tripod. The other is on a lightweight Manfrotto carbon fibre tripod. The camera further away (Camera A) is mounted inside a K-Tek Norbert cage (mount frame) and has a Zoom H4n audio recorder mounted on it. This in turn is plugged into a Pinknoise splitter cable, with one end going to camera (to record audio in camera) and the other to headphones. A Rode NTG3 microphone is used for the main audio which is recoded onto the Zoom H4n in WAV format with the passthrough recording in camera. The B camera also has a Rode VideoMic Pro recording audio onto it. The black background and supports are Lastolite and were used in all the interviews. The lighting is by a single Kino Flo Diva Light (supplied by New Day Pictures) and a Lastolite reflector. June 02, 2011. Photo: Nicola Taylor

The other aspect to keeping this consistency was to make sure the lighting was as identical as possible. After consulting with the specialist hire company New Day Pictures, we went for a Kino Flo Diva Light (shot through it’s softbox diffuser). This has been the most amazing light I’ve ever worked with.

Audio

For audio, I used Rode microphones throughout. The cameras where fitted with the Rode VideoMic and VideoMic Pro for all of the cutaway and GV scenes. Although we had originally thought that all their audio would be replaced with the interviews with Professor Briggs, Neil ended up using a fair amount of the audio from them. The main audio, which was for all the interviews, was done using a Rode NTG3, recoding onto both camera A (using a Pinknoise splitter cable) and onto the Zoom H4n (in WAV format). We mounted the mic on a mic stand and had it just outside shot.

The Royal Connection

Royal visit to the Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital (RNOH), Stanmore, Middx. HRH Prince Andrew being filmed by Edmond Terakopian. For this shot two Canon 5D MkII cameras were used. One on a Gitzo (GT3531LSV + G1380 head) tripod. The other is on a lightweight Manfrotto carbon fibre tripod. The camera further away (Camera A) is mounted inside a K-Tek Norbert cage (mount frame) and has a Zoom H4n audio recorder mounted on it. This in turn is plugged into a Pinknoise splitter cable, with one end going to camera (to record audio in camera) and the other to headphones. A Rode NTG3 microphone is used for the main audio which is recoded onto the Zoom H4n in WAV format with the passthrough recording in camera. The B camera also has a Rode VideoMic Pro recording audio onto it. The black background and supports are Lastolite and were used in all the interviews. The lighting is by a single Kino Flo Diva Light (supplied by New Day Pictures) and a Lastolite reflector. June 02, 2011. Photo: Nicola Taylor

The first of our interviews was with HRH Prince Andrew, who not only only was the patron of the hospital, but is also the father of a former patient; Princess Eugenie. We also did an interview with the Princess and both pieces added so much to the film. These weren’t only essential, but were also an absolute joy to shoot.

Royal visit to the Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital (RNOH), Stanmore, Middx. HRH Princess Eugenie being filmed by Edmond Terakopian. For this shot two Canon 5D MkII cameras were used. One on a Gitzo (GT3531LSV + G1380 head) tripod. The other is on a lightweight Manfrotto carbon fibre tripod. The camera to the left (Camera A) is mounted inside a K-Tek Norbert cage (mount frame) and has a Zoom H4n audio recorder mounted on it. This in turn is plugged into a Pinknoise splitter cable, with one end going to camera (to record audio in camera) and the other to headphones. A Rode NTG3 microphone is used for the main audio which is recoded onto the Zoom H4n in WAV format with the passthrough recording in camera. The B camera also has a Rode VideoMic Pro recording audio onto it. The black background and supports are Lastolite and were used in all the interviews. The lighting is by a single Kino Flo Diva Light (supplied by New Day Pictures) and a Lastolite reflector. June 02, 2011. Photo: Nicola Taylor

After every day’s shoot, we would make copies of all the CF cards (video) and SD card (audio) onto both Neil and my MacBook Pros. Once back at our respective offices, we would both also make backups onto our Mac Pros and RAID systems. On top of this, I also made multiple off-site backups. With a project that has so much data and is shot over such a long period of time, it’s not worth risking losing something before delivering the final cut to the client. With this workflow we had multiple copies (RAID 1 and RAID 5) across three geographical locations.

Once Neil had put together a long assembly, Nicola and I met with Neil at the New Day Pictures’ editing suite. Although able to edit video myself, I never thought of myself as anything but having rudimentary skills. Watching Neil at work was an amazing education. The philosophy behind editing is the most crucial thing; watching him operate the keyboard, mouse and various break out boxes full on knobs and sliders like a concert pianist was amazing, but understanding the reason behind constructing edits was just mind blowing. The three days that I spent with Neil were invaluable. The film naturally did take much longer than that to do though. If you’ve never worked with a professional editor, I highly recommend it; in fact, it’s essential.

The Premiere

Our first screening was for the RNOH fundraising team. The silence and sniffles, combined with the teary eyes confirmed for us that we had succeeded in making a powerful and emotive documentary. It’s always difficult to fully judge a project until you’ve shown it to someone outside of the team. Close colleagues who had seen it had all been positive, but it was only when our clients at RNOH approved, that we were completely happy.

The premiere of the film was at the launch of the RNOH Funding Appeal at St James’s Palace, at an event hosted by HRH Prince Andrew and Princess Eugenie. Along with the screening was also a photographic exhibition of my work documenting the hospital. I must admit to being quite nervous when the film was shown; it’s again the fear of not knowing how it will be received. The huge room (bigger than a typical hall) fell quite and stayed quite for the entire length of the film, the silence only being broken by the occasional sniffle. As the film approached it’s end, the sniffles grew not only more frequent, but louder. A gentleman in front of me, who is the father of the amazing Caitlin who is featured in the film was in fact crying fully. It’s hard not to be moved and humbled when witnessing such an amazing reaction to one’s work. After the film finished, there was silence; a silence which carried on for a good five seconds and then the room burst into applause. Later, Neil and I shook hands.

Proud. This is one word which kept coming up between the TAPTV team; we were all proud of what we achieved with this project. When I look back at my career which started in 1989, although I give my all to everything I do, certain assignments stand out and I feel proud; this is certainly one of them.

My hope is that we have helped this amazing hospital to raise some of the money they need; they do amazing work there. I hope that you will help by making a donation HERE.

Film Premiere & Exhibition

What an amazing evening. We had the launch of our RNOH appeal film; a project we have been working on since our first meeting in April 2011. The film was premiered at a special event at St James’s Palace by HRH Prince Andrew and HRH Princess Eugenie. I shall be posting a in-depth article on the project with some behind the scenes photographs and technical briefing on techniques and equipment used. Firstly tough, it is my pleasure to show you our film:

Alongside the film was also a photographic exhibition of images I had taken around the hospital, documenting the amazing work that goes on there, despite the conditions of the fabric of the hospital.

The RNOH launch their funding appeal at St James’s Palace in London. Photographer Edmond Terakopian’s exhibition of photographs documenting the state of the hospital. April 26, 2012. Photo: Edmond Terakopian

The RNOH launch their funding appeal at St James’s Palace in London. Photographer Edmond Terakopian with his exhibition of photographs documenting the state of the hospital. April 26, 2012. Photo: Theodore Wood / http://www.theodorewood.com

Here are some images of the exhibition of prints, and some photographs by Theodore Wood from the event, showing Princess Eugenie viewing the exhibition and being presented a print on her departure from the event.

The RNOH launch their funding appeal at St James’s Palace in London. Photographer Edmond Terakopian shows HRH Princess Eugenie a series of photographs documenting the state of the hospital. April 26, 2012. Photo: Theodore Wood / http://www.theodorewood.com

Photo Reportage On An Extraordinary Place

As we count down to the launch of the RNOH (Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital) funding appeal, we thought to share a few images from the photographic exhibition accompanying the premiere screening of our film. The event will be at one of the Royal Palaces later on today. To say it’s an exclusive and special venue would be an understatement.

The RNOH is known for transforming people’s lives and our film, launched later on tonight, will go into more detail. Meanwhile, here are the images:

Neil Patience, Editor & Producer on the film, shares his thoughts about the project and also talks of his philosophy behind the editing as well as his workflow.

My own journey with the RNOH began in June 2004 when I was diagnosed with chondrosarcoma, a rare bone cancer. If it was not for Professor Tim Briggs and his staff I would not be here today. I literally owe them my life.

During one of my regular check ups in early 2011, Professor Briggs asked me if I would be willing to make an appeal film for the then upcoming RNOH redevelopment appeal. Of course I agreed without hesitation.

I had been an admirer of Edmond Terakopian’s work for some time and we had already briefly worked on a couple of minor projects and camera tests with the Red One together.

I knew his skill with a 5DMKII and journalistic instincts would be perfect for a project.

From our first meeting with the RNOH it was clear that the brief was a little complex as the film was to serve several purposes.

It needed to illustrate the ground breaking world class work that is carried out at RNOH but at the same time reflect the run down infrastructure of the hospital (the reason behind the fundraising appeal).

Patients and their families invariably spoke very highly of the staff at all levels and unsurprisingly had nothing but praise for the often life changing or indeed life saving treatment. Their feelings about the surroundings where that treatment was delivered was another story. So it was somewhat of a paradox that had to be addressed in making the film.

Edmond and I along with Professor Briggs and Rosie Stolarski, head of the hospital charity, decided to make the film in a documentary style to be able to intertwine patients stories, the work the hospital does. the new building projects and the reasons behind the appeal.

With the help of the hospital we selected seven patients who’s conditions, ages and treatments reflected the range of RNOH’s work. They, like me, all agreed to take part without any persuasion.

Tim Briggs was going to be the backbone of the film, his interview was key to providing the information about the hospital, the appeal, and the aims of the redevelopment.

The patients would tell their own stories, and the GV’s around the hospital grounds and wards spoke for themselves.

So essentially we went into the edit with broadly 3 elements, Tim’s Interview, the patient interviews and the shots of the hospital both interiors and exterior.

We have both Avid and FCP editing options but I decided to edit the film using Final Cut Pro as I wanted the option to use Apple Color to grade and that gives me the easiest workflow.

I used the basic FCP Log and Transfer tool to transcode all the rushes to ProRes HQ (and made a back-up of all the media.)

Initially I had to sync up all the audio recorded on the Zoom H4n with the 2 Canon 5D MKII cameras. I was going to use PluralEyes for this but quickly realised that the audio recordings for each interview were continuous and the cameras only stopped recording two or three times during each interview (due to limitations set in video length on DSLRs).

So it was very easy and quick to lay the pictures against the Zoom sound manually, matching the waveforms, and creating a multicam sequence for each interview.

Once all were assembled we had them transcribed (by UK Transcription in Brighton) which made editing them much easier.

First I made several long assembles of all the sync interviews that we wanted to include from Tim Briggs and each patient, editing and re-editing to get the most powerful comments as they each told their stories and spoke of their experiences at RNOH. Having two cameras meant that it was much easier to cut down without worrying about finding cutaways or having to re-order shots to get cuts. It gave me a lot of flexibility.

Once I had a long assembly I was happy with Edmond and photographer Nicola Taylor, who had been our assistant though-out, to join me in the edit suite.

We spent 2 more days cutting and recutting, slowly getting the duration down, selecting cutaways and GV’s. We revisited the transcriptions many times adding and replacing shots, interview segments and selecting music until we had our film.

I had intended to grade the whole film using Color but the rushes looked fabulous and needed less work than I had imagined at the outset. Instead I decided to use a combination of Color on some shots that required several secondary corrections and mask layers to get sky and foreground nicely graded and Gen Arts Sapphire plug-ins on other shots, namely the interviews and to provide some subtle vignettes here and there.

Sapphire Film Effect provided a lovely gamma curve while adding a very subtle softness to the shots. It also allows for some colour balancing and the trusty FCP 3 way colour corrector also played a part here and there.

The audio mix was quite straight forward as it was essentially sync sound, atmos and music. I mixed the audio directly in FCP. The suite at New Day Pictures has broadcast monitoring for both audio and video (Leader rasterizer and PPM’s) so everything was completed to UK HD broadcast spec.

We made Bluray DVD’s using Adobe Encore and standard def DVD’s using DVD Studio Pro. Transcodes were completed using a combination of Compressor, MPEG Streamclip and Telestream Episode.